


All the Good That Won't Come Out

by enmity



Category: Tales of Phantasia, Tales of Series
Genre: F/M, IT'S SUCH A BIG MISTAKE LYING HERE IN YOUR WARM EMBRACE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 03:24:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16802686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enmity/pseuds/enmity
Summary: Honestly, the worst part about this was that they were both sober.





	All the Good That Won't Come Out

**Author's Note:**

> set at ambiguous point in canon
> 
> got past 1.000 words so i said, oof, and posted it a separate fanfic

Halfway through her increasingly loud and incoherent argument with Chester he unburied himself from three layers of blankets, walked over, and goaded Arche outside by the shoulders gently in a manner he hadn’t done since he’d been eighteen and trying to woo the vice-principal’s daughter into taking algebra notes for him.

“Excuse us for a second,” Klarth said, with an unapologetic smile, and slammed the door behind them midway through Chester’s insistence on having the last say in… to be honest, he’d stopped listening to their petty bickering about maybe two weeks in. Otherwise he would’ve slid much faster into mental decline. Once they were some distance outside the inn he stared at the pouting girl in front of him and said, quite gravely, “I think you’re in dire need of an intervention, young lady.”

“What?” she squeaked, indignant, but it was hard to be threatened by someone who had to stand on her tiptoes to look him in the eye. Rather precious, really. He didn’t need to step into Chester’s shoes to see the appeal. “Look, I had _one_ hangover. One!”

“Not _that_ , idiot. The other thing! Do I have to say it? Also while we’re at it, please don’t get hungover ever again. I don’t usually tuck girls into bed for free, y’see.”

“That was such an unnecessary thing to say.” Arche rolled her eyes, looking neither embarrassed nor even the least bit impressed by the imagery he had no doubt put into her mind. She glanced at some invisible clock, “Hurry up, I’ve got the world’s most obnoxious archer to kill and he’s not gonna give me all night.”

“Precisely!” he exclaimed. “You need to stop. At this point, I don’t think you even know what flirting _is_! I’ve been watching you two go at this obnoxiously bizarre mating dance for a month and I have seen no progress to speak of. So speaking as the resident expert, and for the sake of my tenuous sanity, I’d say it’s time to take a different approach.” He patted her shoulder sympathetically.

Arche swatted him viciously. “Obnoxious… bizarre… mating dance? What?”

“Oh, don’t be dumb. You,” Klarth pointed, “Chester. The tension between you two that’s so thick I can’t even tell if all the murder threats are real anymore. Ah! Youthful romance.”

Her eyes were sparkling. She simpered, clasping her hands together, and leaned forward. It was an atrociously obvious attempt at distraction. He didn’t step back.

“You called me a _young lady_ ,” Arche said. “I know what you want to say— ‘forget that idiot and never speak of him again! Throw him screaming off the nearest cliff, in fact! Can’t you see _I’m_ the one who understands you, Arche? Been there—‘”

“SHUT UP.”

Once three whole seconds had passed and he’d stopped seeing red, Klarth concluded the plan was going absolutely nowhere. Maybe he would’ve had better luck with Chester, but scratch that. He didn’t even know why he’d thought the solution to all his problems would be to convince Arche she was madly in love with Chester, and in fact the idea sounded increasingly dumb the more thought he put into it (as in, more than zero). It must not have been a proud moment. Anyway, fact: it was a terrible idea.

And another thing: he could still salvage this.

“Are you going to help me hide the body or what?” She tapped her foot expectantly. “I’m open to suggestions for what we’re gonna tell Cless. Hiking trip gone wrong? The mountains aren’t that far. The vultures are plentiful there, I hear.”

“You are _not_ talking me into being an accomplice to Chester's murder.”

“Shut up, I was kidding. Mostly.” Arche shrugged ambiguously. “Can we come in now? It’s getting cold. I bet Chester’s already gone to bed.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” he said, and held her so that his hand brushed the back of her shoulder, nothing more than bone jutting through soft cotton beneath smooth skin, and drifting slowly towards the small of her back as she rose on her toes to compensate for the proximity and difference in height. She’d moved too naturally, as though half-expecting it, and a thought flitted through his mind of Rhea, and then, the absent maybe-boyfriend-who-was-probably-now-an-ex. It sounded pretty complicated. So she couldn’t see the unicorn. So what? There were about a dozen other questions he could be asking himself right now, but, then again: _so what?_ “You know, you might have a point.”

It was a transparent joke if there was one, but when Klarth blinked he saw the color of her eyes clouding over, a duller shade of pink flickering against the evening darkness. He felt eighteen again, or maybe he felt his age. The girls he’d convinced to cut class with had been eager to giggle and blush at the drop of a hat, but Arche’s languid smile merely slid into place, like an afterthought or a challenge. She didn’t look guilty, didn’t look like she cared, and here a part of him wished he could care and feel guilty for her— because the fact was he didn’t, either. At least, not as much as he should.

“You’re such a frivolous guy, hopping from one excuse to another. No wonder you’re still single,” she yawned, but touched her own cheek regardless, checking for some sign of flush or warmth (none he could see). She held her gaze, “Girls don’t like impermanence.”

“Easy for you to say. I’ll be dead for like a hundred years by the time you sprout your first gray hair. Help me out here.”

“That’s just worse.” This time she looked away. Klarth considered the troubled expression she'd briefly shown him. It always looked wrong on her. “Don’t remind me… Agh, stupid. You just ruined the mood! Are we gonna do this or not?” Her hands balled into fists.

“What? Oh, right.”

“So much for being the ‘resident expert’…”

“You’re not questioning any of this?”

She shrugged, “It’s no big deal. I mean, it’s you, after all.”

“I’m not even gonna ask what you meant by that.”

He wasn’t really sure how the situation had segued from one thing to another and then this. Damn it, all he wanted was for her and Chester to stop fighting for one second so he could stop slowly going mad. There was nothing wrong with that! There was no need to have it lead to this! Not that he hated the idea, and not that he hadn’t entertained it once or twice while he was bored - granted, it was mostly to annoy Cless, but…

“Are you having a stroke,” Arche asked carefully.

“Shut up, I’m usually good at this,” Klarth muttered, squinting at her. Honestly, the worst part about this whole farce was that they were both sober. He should’ve saved them the trouble and kissed her on that ship back then. Except she would’ve sighed something like _oh, no, Cless! Not where people can see!_ and then he’d have dropped her instantly, so she could continue the rest of her crazy dream as he slept in the other bed with at least two pillows taped securely to each ear.

And then they would’ve woken up to the guy they’d gone drinking with possessed and later dead, which would’ve served as the biggest ill omen ever in the history of mankind. He'd almost forgotten that part. 

Goddamnit. There really _was_ no other time but now.

“You’re such a pain in the ass,” she murmured, but didn’t look irritated at all as she leaned over to put her arms around his neck, and _tugged_. “Way too aloof, for one. Or was that on purpose?”

“Gonna serenade me all night with insults now, are you? Sorry, not into that kind of thing.” Klarth smiled to let her know what exactly what he meant by it. He went on, “Really, you don’t even have the curves to justify that sort of attitude."

“Ugh, shut up,” Arche snapped, and a second later, he did exactly that.

**Author's Note:**

> mint and cless arent even mentioned cuz...theyre heavy sleepers? roll with it


End file.
